Bullet Points: Busy Thursday Edition

• There’s now a suspenseful two-minute trailer available for Series 4 of HBO-TV’s True Detective, subtitled Night Country. As The Killing Times explains, it’s set in fictional Ennis, Alaska, and “tells the story of eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station and vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) have to confront ‘the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.’ That and try to get along with one another.” The trailer promises this series of True Detective is “coming this year,” but (frustratingly) gives no specific debut date.


(Above) A trailer for True Detective, Season 4.

• We have finally received word of when several UK-made crime dramas will return to U.S. screens with fresh stories. Grace, based on Peter James’ best-selling Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novels and starring John Simm, will see its Series 3 premiere tonight, Thursday, April 20, on the streaming service BritBox. Expect to see three episodes of Grace. Meanwhile, the historical mystery Grantchester, featuring Robson Green and Tom Brittney, is due to launch its eighth season on Masterpiece Mystery! come July 9, with six new episodes. And Series 5 of Unforgotten, starring Sanjeev Bhaskar and Sinéad Keenan, will reportedly become available “later this year” via PBS Passport, PBS Video, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video channel. Six episodes will comprise its latest season.

• Variety brings word that independent film studio Wiip has optioned the rights to The Eden Test (Flatiron), a suspense novel by New York Times editor Adam Sternbergh that is set to reach American bookstores next week. Here’s a plot synopsis:

Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for The Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed―long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York.

At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection, and natural beauty―and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last. Their marriage was never perfect, but now the lies and revelations are piling up, as the week becomes much more than they bargained for ... How far are they willing to go?

Wiip intends to turn Sternbergh’s yarn into a TV series.

• Wow! Former flight attendant T.J. Newman’s Drowning, her second airline thriller—due out at the end of May—proved to be one hell of a hot Hollywood property. “Landing the movie rights to Drowning,” says Variety, “triggered an all-out bidding war, one that drew interest from the likes of [Nicole] Kidman, Alfonso Cuarón and Steven Spielberg, along with seven-figure offers from Apple and [Jerry] Bruckheimer, Paramount and Damien Chazelle, Legendary, Universal Television, and Warner Bros. ‘There was an eight-hour period where I never hung up my phone,’ says Shane Salerno, Newman’s agent. ‘People would call my landline, and I’d put them on mute while I answered a call from another bidder on my cell phone. I’d get an offer and before we had a chance to counter, they’d text me and raise it.’” Warner Bros. eventually triumphed, “agreeing to pay $1.5 million for the rights and an additional $1.5 million on the first day of production. The studio also brought the Drowning author on as an executive producer.”

• Did you know that Netflix commissioned a small-screen adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s 2014 Pulitzer-winning novel, All The Light We Cannot See? I didn’t, but among its stars are Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and Louis Hofmann, and it is set to premiere on November 2.

• Finally, In Reference to Murder offers two recent items of interest. First, news that “Austin Butler will lead the cast of City on Fire, a movie version of Don Winslow’s novel” from last year. And second, a notice that “Writer and director Michael Mann’s Heat 2 is nearing development with Adam Driver set to star. The original 1995 crime film followed the conflict between an LAPD detective (played by Al Pacino) and a career criminal (played by Robert De Niro), while also depicting its effect on their professional relationships and personal lives. The new [film] project will be an adaptation of Mann’s original follow-up novel, Heat 2, which tells both a prequel and sequel story.”

• Happy 30th birthday to Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, which editor George Easter says debuted in newsletter form in April 1993. His post on the subject includes a scan of that inaugural issue, which awarded UK crime writer Liza Cody front-page attention.

• With CrimeFest 2023 set to kick off in Bristol, England, on Thursday, May 11, Mike Ripley begins his April “Getting Away with Murder” column with some photographic memories of CrimeFests past. He moves on from there to mentions of Maurizio Di Giovanni’s Inspector Ricciardi series, Joffe Books’ reissuing of James Mitchell’s David Callan thrillers, and new titles by Eli Cranor, Dennis Lehane, Lindsey Davis, and others. You’ll find his full column in Shots.

• When we announced in late March that a new James Bond thriller, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, had been penned by British novelist Charlie Higson and scheduled for release on Thursday, May 4 (just ahead of King Charles III’s coronation), there wasn’t yet a book jacket to show off. However, Amazon UK has now added that cover to its order page. The artwork appears fairly simplistic, but we’re assured that it makes more of an impression in person, with “an eye-catching gold foil effect, fit for a king.”

• Speaking of Agent 007, Kim Sherwood—the author of Double or Nothing (Morrow), set in the world of Bond and unleashed on American consumers earlier this month—has placed an interesting piece in CrimeReads that looks back on “the origins and impact of Ian Fleming’s legendary espionage novel,” Casino Royale (1953).

• From the heterogeneous blog Boing Boing comes news that “Wandering Planet Toys … has just launched a new Kickstarter campaign for a retro-style action figure series inspired by the classic Nancy Drew novels. They’re the first ever officially licensed toys of the iconic detective character in the nearly century since she first debuted.” This campaign’s goal is to raise $60,000 by Wednesday, May 17; at last check, $31,452 had been pledged already. In addition to those action figures, a brand-new, five-chapter Drew novella, The Clue of the Curious Collection—carrying the traditional author byline “Carolyn Keane”—is slated for publication.

• Another fundraiser worth your attention is being mounted by author Max Allan Collins. He’s launched a drive through the crowdfunding Web site Indiegogo to amass $5,000 over the next month and a half, which will be spent on turning his A Christmas Carol-like detective short story, “Blue Christmas” (published in a 2001 collection), into a movie. “It’s kind of a work that pulls together a lot of my interests in one place,” Collins explains in a pitch video, “and something that I’ve wanted to make for a long time.” Contributors at the $100 level will be thanked in the film’s credits; those giving $500 to $2,000 will be recognized as either associate producers or executive producers. What’s more, anyone who donates $25 to $500 can ask Collins to send them books from his backlist. Feeling flush? Go here to chip in. More than $800 has been raised thus far.

• Don Winslow talks with the New Zealand Herald about his current trilogy of crime novels, his “retirement from writing [in order] to concentrate on political activism,” his support of fellow writers, how none of his books expose much about him, and more.

• And Sai Shankar is back with part two of his deep dive into the history of Black Mask magazine. This time, he dissects one of the early issues edited by Florence May Osborne. The first installment of this series can be enjoyed here.